A Taxonomy and Business Analysis for Mobile Web Applications Kevin Hao Liu Working Paper CISL# 2009-01 January 2009 Composite Information Systems Laboratory (CISL) Sloan School of Management, Room E53-320 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA 02142 A Taxonomy and Business Analysis for Mobile Web Applications By Kevin Hao Liu Ph.D. Computer Science Victoria University Submitted to the System Design and Management Program in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Management and Engineering At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology February 2009 © 2009 Kevin H Liu. All rights reserved The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created. Signature of Author Kevin H Liu System Design and Management Program February 2009 Certified by Stuart E Madnick John Norris Maguire Professor of Information Technology Sloan School of Management Professor of Engineering Systems School of Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology Thesis Supervisor Certified by Patrick Hale Director System Design & Management Program Massachusetts Institute of Technology A Taxonomy and Business Analysis for Mobile Web Applications By Kevin Hao Liu Submitted to the System Design and Management Program in February 2009 in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Management and Engineering ABSTRACT Mobile web applications refer to web applications on mobile devices, aimed at personalizing, integrating, and discovering mobile contents in user contexts. This thesis presents a comprehensive study of mobile web applications by proposing a new taxonomy for mobile web applications, and conducting a business analysis in the field of mobile web applications. The thesis reviews the current surrounding environment for mobile web applications, namely, web 2.0 and 3.0, wireless communication technology, and Smartphone platform. The recent entry and success of Apple’s iPhone greatly enhanced the public awareness of the Smartphone technology. Google’s release of open-source Android platform and T-Mobile’s deployment of Android-powered “Dream” Smartphone not only intensify the competition among suppliers, but also provide an open-source foundation for mobile web applications. This thesis introduces a new mobile web application taxonomy to systematically study the values and the groupings of the mobile web applications. By introducing features and categories, the taxonomy provides a framework so the related companies and businesses can be comparatively analyzed and summarized. Selected case companies are studied in the light of the taxonomy. The thesis discusses the key issues of mobile web aggregation, namely, mobile application development platform, context modeling, mobile user interface, mobile application logic, and mobile web aggregation strategy. “System Thinking” is applied to the management of mobile web application business. The market ecosystem, the value proposition, and the revenue model for mobile web application are described. A system dynamic model is constructed to understand the dynamic among the key factors in the mobile web business. Experimental results are reported in the thesis. Thesis Advisor: Stuart E Madnick John Norris Maguire Professor of Information Technology Sloan School of Management Professor of Engineering Systems School of Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology - 1 - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Professor Stuart Madnick for his support, insight, and guidance in the course of my research. I would also like to thank Director Patrick Hale for making the SDM program flexible to tailor to individual needs. Finally, I would like to thank my family for love and support during my study at MIT. - 2 - This page is intentionally left blank - 3 - TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................9 2. Background Overview .....................................................................................................................12 2.1 Web 2.0 – Web as Platform.......................................................................................................12 2.2 Web 3.0 – Semantic and Intelligent Web ..................................................................................14 2.3 Traditional Mobile Networks ....................................................................................................16 2.4 Modern Wireless Technology ...................................................................................................20 2.4.1 WiFi Hotspot & FON ....................................................................................................... 20 2.4.2 WiMax .............................................................................................................................. 23 2.4.3 Wireless Mesh Networks .................................................................................................. 24 2.5 Rise of Smartphone ...................................................................................................................27 2.6 Android......................................................................................................................................29 2.7 J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition) ....................................................................................................32 2.8 Trends of Mobile Phone Platform .............................................................................................35 3. Taxonomy of Mobile Web Applications.........................................................................................38 3.1 Features......................................................................................................................................40 3.2 Categories..................................................................................................................................43 3.2.1 Feature -- Context ............................................................................................................. 44 3.2.2 Feature -- Ever Present ..................................................................................................... 49 3.2.3 Feature – Mobility ............................................................................................................ 53 3.3 Examples of Existing Mobile Web Applications ......................................................................54 3.3.1 Loopt (www.loopt.com) ................................................................................................... 55 3.3.2 Google (www.google.com) Mobile Search ...................................................................... 57 3.3.3 TruTap (www.trutap.com)................................................................................................ 60 3.3.4 eBuddy (www.ebuddy.com) ............................................................................................. 61 3.3.5 MedApps (www.medapps.net) ......................................................................................... 63 3.4 Mobile Web Applications vs. Native Mobile Applications.......................................................66 3.5 Mobile Web Applications vs. Mobile Web Aggregation ..........................................................67 4. Mobile Web Aggregation.................................................................................................................69 4.1 Mobile Web Aggregation Platform ...........................................................................................69 4.2 Web Portal API & Mashup........................................................................................................72 4.3 Context Modeling......................................................................................................................75 4.4 Mobile Application User Interface ............................................................................................79 4.5 Mobile Web Application Logic.................................................................................................81 4.5.1 Mobile Personalization ..................................................................................................... 81 4.5.2 Mobile Web Mining.......................................................................................................... 84 4.6 Mobile Aggregation Strategy ....................................................................................................85 5. Business Analysis for Mobile Web Applications ...........................................................................87 5.1 Market Ecosystem Analysis ......................................................................................................88 5.2 Value Proposition ......................................................................................................................89 5.3 Revenue Model..........................................................................................................................91 - 4 - 5.4 Strategy......................................................................................................................................93 5.4.1 A System Dynamic Model...............................................................................................